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A few days ago, Ben Cherington admitted the Red Sox have been "involved at some level" with almost every pitcher who has either signed as a free agent or been traded thus far in the offseason.

That includes R.A. Dickey.

When the Mets made clear at the winter meetings earlier this month that they were willing to trade Dickey, the Red Sox engaged them in conversation. But just as the Sox haven't wavered in their insistence on a top-of-the-rotation starter in any potential deal involving center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, the Mets were steadfast in their desire for a package of elite prospects in return for Dickey. And when the Mets opened talks with the Sox by asking about the availability of 20-year-old shortstop Xander Bogaerts(Herald photo) and athletic center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., well, they were told it was a non-starter, even for a starter who just won the NL Cy Young Award.

Ultimately, the Mets got their prospect haul from the Blue Jays, who reportedly have agreed to move 23-year-old catcher Travis d'Arnaud and Class A right-hander Noah Syndergaard. According to Fox Sports, the trade will be completed if the Jays are able to negotiate a contract extension for Dickey before a 2 p.m. deadline Tuesday. At this point, though, it's difficult to imagine a deal won't be reached.

So, really, what we have here is a difference in philosophy.

The Jays look at the AL East and believe it is theirs for the taking. The Yankees are old; the Red Sox are a 93-loss team in transition; the penny-pinching Rays have traded for offense (22-year-old outfielder Wil Myers) but only at the expense of pitching (farewell, James Shields); the Orioles are due for a regression after a season in which they went 29-9 in one-run games and 16-2 in extra innings. Thus, Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is going for broke, mortgaging four top prospects in a pair of megatrades for shortstop Jose Reyes, second baseman Emilio Bonifacio and starters Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle and Dickey.

And the Red Sox? Having finally restocked their farm system over the past few years, they're treating their most talented minor leaguers like precious gems. Bogaerts, Bradley, outfielder Bryce Brentz and right-handers Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman are virtually as untouchable as franchise cornerstone Dustin Pedroia. Ditto for Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa, the talented right-handers acquired in the salary-shedding August blockbuster with the Dodgers. Meanwhile, they've stuck to their pledge of avoiding long-term contracts, drawing a line at three years for Josh Hamilton and Anibal Sanchez, bypassing Zack Greinke altogether, and agreeing to two- and three-year deals with second-tier free agents Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster, Jonny Gomes and David Ross and one-year contracts for Koji Uehara and Stephen Drew in an attempt to have a more respectable 2013 season while waiting for the prospects to arrive in 2014 and beyond.

As we wrote in today's Herald, that's really how the Red Sox -- and, for that matter, the Blue Jays, too -- will be judged. If the prospects pan out, the Sox will be well-positioned to fulfill what Cherington has called "the next great Red Sox team," regardless of their resistence to headline-grabbing splashy moves this winter. But if the Sox have overrated Bogaerts, Bradley and the others, they will lament not being bolder. Likewise, if next year produces Toronto's first division title since 1993 in a seemingly vulnerable AL East and a long postseason run, the depletion of the farm system will be well worth it. But if the Jays fall short of those expectations, Anthopoulos' gamble will be a bust.